Emotions
by Arcanelle
Summary: [PAGE][KelNeal][one-shot] Neal tries to convince Kel to let her feeling go and to pursue her desires. One swift exchange of passion and the two will never be the same.


**Emotions**

_A KelNeal one-shot_

By Taishoku Kurayami (penname subject to change)

Disclaimer: -shifty eyes- Eh heh... I own a copy of _Trickster's Choice_, but nothing else. -shifty eyes... again- Don't. Touch. The ramen noodles!

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AN: If any of you are familiar with me - so far, I've only done decent Inuyasha and some crappy X-Men: Evo - then you'll probably know that my style varies, depnding on the day, the hour of the day, and how I'm feeling. This is my first Tamora Pierce fanfic, but it is not my first fanfic. I've been writing for over a year now (though I deleted most of the ones I wrote before my Inuyasha days, other than one I couldn't bear to part with). Anyone can tell you, I;me really into the whole "first love" cliche. Yea... I'm hopeless... though, if I eve get a crush on a teacher, I'm bound to stoop to Kel x Dom... Then again, I never did care too much for Dom, anyway. I'm babbling, and I'll likely stray to Inuyasha if I keep at it, and then you non-anime people wil get confused, so I'l just let you read. I know it kinda has that "been there, done that" feel, but who cares. I was bored, and I've already updated most of my Inuyasha fics.

Oh, and for y'all out there that are Inuyasha fans, if you like Rin x Kohaku or Miroku x Sango, I have some fics you might like.

If you aren't familiar with Inuyasha, it's on Monday-Thursday nights at 12:30 eastern standard time (America) on Cartoon Network's Adult Swim. If you like Protector of the Small, you'll like Inuyasha. Just raise your right hand and repeate these words: "I, (insert name here), will never stray to wiritng a Miroku x Kagome fic, an Inuyasha x Sango fic, a Sesshoumaru x Kagome fic, or anything involving an out-of-character, horrible Kikyou bashing." Now, go watch it... if it's on...

You can read it now.

Oh, and this is set around the end of "Page" - when Kel's about thirteen and Neal's around seventeen.

_I've reposted it. Like many of my reviewers pointed out, I messed up Neal's hair color. One of my reviewers said I "put Neal and Cleon in a blender", and it was pretty close. I couldn't remember which of the two was the red head, so I flipped a coin... -.-_

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She forced herself to stay straight faced as he pressed a glowing hand to her face. She wouldn't have needed him to heal her bruise if not for the fact that the black eye distorted her vision, but he insisted that he help her. She'd never admit it outloud, but she did find his touch quite soothing.

"I told you that monster would would get you killed someday," he grumbled, half-serious.

"Peachblossom," she guessed dryly, "or Joren? And I'm not dead yet." He smiled, shaking his head.

"Both," he responded, a chuckle forming in the back of his throat, though he managed to contain it. "There, you should be able to see now." He dropped his hands to his lap, admiring his work. He had surpressed enough of the blue that had circled her eye so that Wyldon would neve be able to distinguish that she had gotten into a fight with Joren and her horse, though both Kel and Daine had argued the the gelding was only trying to help.

She rubbed her eye, wincing at the slight lingering pain. She snapped out of her daze when she realized that Neal had suddenly began to comb through her abrubtly cropped hair with his fingers.

"Neal, what are you--?"

"Just thinking about what you might look like..." he mused. "You know, if you had long hair and - well,if you looked like a girl." She raised an eyebrow, reluctantly brushing his hand off.

"What do you mean?" she wondered aloud, leaning further forward and propping her elbows on her knees. He smirked, looking away and running his fingers through his own brown mess of hair. He shrugged.

"Wondering how attractive you'd be," he explained, catching her eyes in his own, "if you had chosen to be a normal girl instead of a knight." He snorted, realizing he had just compared his friend to a normal Totallan female. She tensed, her heart pounding.

"You're being weird, Neal," she blurted, jerking her eyes away from his. She supposed that, if she were normal, this would be where she was supposed to grin stupidly, glancing sidelong through her lashes at him. She would never do that - she wasn't some sort of petty soul that required to flirt with any man who crossed her path.

He shook his head, tilting her chin up so her eyes were parallel to his once more. "No, for once I'm not being weird at all," he stated. Kel shuddered, an unusually giddy sensation flowing down her spine. She thought she saw Lalassa in the doorway, but the maid had apparently either decided that it was a bad time to intrude or had something else she needed to do.

"Neal--"

"Listen, Kel," he requested softly. "Sometimes, keeping your desires and emotions locked inside can be unhealthy. I know that the Yamani teach otherwise, and I respect them. However, Kel, you're in Tortall now." Mishief gleamed in his green eyes. "One way or another, I'm going to get you to say something more emotional than a dinner roll can."

He's comparing my Yamani mask to the emotion shown by a dinner roll, she thought scronfully. Wonderful...

He eyed the door. Once he was certain no one was around, he tugged on her hand to pull her into the best concealed corner. Before she could react, he had pulled her into a swift embrace, pressing his own lips against hers.

It was over nearly as soon as it had begun, but she could still feel the tingle of his lips dancing upon hers. A million thoughts raced through her head, but the prevailing one gasped, "Neal! Are you insane?! If anyone saw that, we're both out of here - for good!" Once she was sure she was not going to suffer from a heart attack, she looked back over at him. "Neal, that was the stupidest thing you have ever done." He held his palms in the air, surrendering.

"Fine, slap me if you must," he laughed. "And that, dear girl, was the absolute weirdest thing you'll ever see me do. Now, let your emotions fly free. Yell, hit, scream, throw something--"

"Shut up, idiot," she mumbled, flinging herself back onto him in a flury of emotions she was not trained to know how to contain. She swiftly pursed her lips against his, pulling back only when her thinking ability cleared and she realized this could get them both in deep trouble.

"We should probably kinda... forget that just happened," Kel suggested, wiping her mouth on the sleeve of her tunic. Neal breathed a sigh - whether of relief or regret, she wasn't sure - walking towards the door.

"Kel," he muttered. She looked over at him, eyes clouded with emotions that she clearly wanted to rid herself of. The last thing she needed was another distraction. He shook his head. "Nevermind."

She watched him walk away, wondering if that kiss was real... or if had just been a tool to get her to expel some of her bottled feelings. She would have to ask him someday - just not then.

She could have almost swore he kissed back the second time, but that was probably just her imagination... right?

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AN: There ya go: my first KelNeal attempt. Read and review. And this is a one-shot, mind you, but I might dabble back in the fandom now and then. :)


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